


Xander the Wereleopard

by Wyndewalker



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-24
Updated: 2013-08-24
Packaged: 2017-12-24 12:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/940028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wyndewalker/pseuds/Wyndewalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander lands in a new reality and gets sent to Anita for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Xander the Wereleopard

**Author's Note:**

> This is not related to my story Game Changer. 
> 
> Most of my knowledge of the Anita-verse comes from other fanfiction. I haven't really read past The Lunatic Cafe. Once Hamilton started focusing on the sex rather than the crime-solving I kinda lost interest. So if Anita is a bit out of character I apologize.

Xander stared at the slip of paper in his hand then up at the building in front of him. This was it. Now he just needed someone to listen to his weird and wacky tale of woe and hopefully believe him. Supposedly there was a woman that worked here who would. Taking a deep breath, he walked into the building and into the front office of Animators, Inc.

"Uh, hi," he said politely to the guy behind the receptionist desk. "I realize I probably need an appointment but I didn't have time to make one by the time I arrived in the city it was already getting dark and I know the nightlife around here supposedly isn't as dangerous as what I'm used to but I didn't really want to test that my first night, you know, ‘cause being vamp chow so isn't fun not that it's happened more than once but that's not why I'm here because from what I've heard the vamps around here are trying to be considered 'real' people with rights and everything and you can't do that if you’re constantly snacking on the local population without their permission so it's permission only for the local undead but after living in the 'Dale all my life you can't blame me for being a tad cautious when it comes to these things, so I know I probably need an appointment but could I possibly speak with Anita Blake? I need to talk to her about a were thing. I can wait if necessary." Xander looked at the dazed man expectantly.

After a second he seemed to snap out of his daze. "Uhm, hold on a sec. I'll see if she's got a minute." That said he dashed out of the room.

"Thank you!" Xander called after him, taking a seat on one of the cushioned seats in the room. He placed the large duffle bag he was carrying at his feet. Only a few moments later the guy returned, a petite dark-haired woman following behind him. He knew without being told this was Anita Blake. It was always the tiny women who could kick the crap out of him if they wanted. Xander rose to his feet, holding out his hand. "Ms. Blake?"

"You are?" she asked, ignoring his hand.

"Alexander Harris, though I'd really prefer it if you called me Xander. Would it be possible to talk in private? I was told you were probably the best person to help me."

"Possibly. Who sent you?"

"A guy named Edward."

"Edward?"

"Uh-huh. Is that a problem? Was he not supposed to?"

"No. It's just surprising. My office," she gestured to the door she'd come out of.

"Thank you," Xander said and walked into it. After she closed the door she sat behind the desk while he took one of the client chairs, once again putting his duffle bag at his feet.

"Why did he send you to me? Craig said you wanted to talk to me about a were thing."

"To be honest I'm not entirely sure why. He just said you'd be able to help me. See I've got a weird and wacky tale that, well, most people wouldn't believe. Even people in the business but Edward said you specialized in the weird and wacky, so here I am."

She sighed leaning back in her chair. "I wouldn't necessarily say that's true, but some people would say I've lost my perspective on that. Why don't you start at the beginning? How do you know Edward?"

"That's really not the beginning. That's mostly an accident. See, what do you know about portals and alternate realities?"

"I know portals are real although they usually travel between dimensions, different planes of existence. I don't know that I believe in alternate realities."

"Oh, they exist. Every time we make a decision, in another reality we make a different one with different consequences. Alternate realities are pretty much endless in their possibilities. I'm from an alternate reality. It's very similar to this one only we have a couple of Hellmouths, vampires don't have souls except for two very notable exceptions, and the world of the supernatural is ignored as just being myth and legend. I worked with a group of people who supported a young woman known as the Slayer, one girl born into each generation to fight back the forces of Evil. Only thanks to some mistakes we ended up having to fight the First Evil and it’s army of Turok Han vampires which required activating all of the potential Slayers all over the world."

"Wait, Turok Han vampires?" She interrupted. "Those are only a myth."

"Oh, no, they're very real. Nasty bastards. Really hard to kill unless you have the Slayer Scythe, this nifty amulet that radiates sunlight but kills the wearer, real sunlight, oh, or a wrecking ball then chopping it's head off with a sword. That worked pretty good too."

"A wrecking ball?" she stared at him in disbelief.

"Uh-huh. So we defeated the First but then we still had about a thousand newly activated Slayers who needed to be found so they could be told what was happening to them and to get them the training they needed. I was given Africa as my area to search out Slayers. Which was working out okay. I'd found about two dozen of them so far when I came across a group of four Mdongia demons trying to perform a ritual that required the deaths of four innocents about five days ago. I stopped them but not before they managed to open up a portal. I, uh, kinda fell through it as I was killing the last demon. When I landed on the other side I managed to land right in the middle of another ritual. This one with three weres and one Mdongia. Your friend Edward was there to kill them apparently. He'd gotten two of the weres and was working on the Mdongia when I came through the portal. I ended up killing the third were before it could kill him and helped him kill the Mdongia 'cause if you don't know how to kill it properly they just keep coming back for more. That would have been it and I would have went on my merry way to see if I could find this reality's Willow to see if she could send me back home, the only problem is that last were managed to sink it's teeth into my leg."

"So you believe you might be infected by a were? What type was it?"

"A leopard and I know I'm a were now."

"Despite popular belief there's actually only about a 75% chance of becoming a were from a bite. There has to be a decent amount of blood or saliva exchanged. Plus it's still a week to the full moon. If you've only been bitten for five days there's no way to tell yet."

"Uhm, while I'm sure you're probably right when it comes to people who are from this reality, 'cause God knows that I'm no expert on this reality, I pretty much knew enough in mine to not get killed, but you have to realize the rules don't always work right when you start mixing people from different realities." He sighed at her look of disbelief. "You're gonna make me do this the hard way aren't you?"

Standing up, he nudged slid off the coat he was wearing. Before she could say anything to protest Xander pulled off his t-shirt then undid the belt holding up his baggy jeans. Anita blinked as power rolled through the room. Suddenly Xander went from your average-looking young man to a half-man, half-leopard. His baggy jeans weren't so baggy anymore. He worked his jaw a little before managing to hiss out, "Ssee? Ssuddenly I'mm leoparrrrd boy."

Anita's jaw dropped open. She knew very few weres who could talk in recognizable human speech in this stage of change, and they’d all been weres for a decade or more. The door opening snapped her out of her shock. Without a thought she pulled her gun, training it on Xander. Larry Kirkland, her apprentice walked in the door and stopped, staring at the scene in front of him.

"Uh, Anita? Everything okay? I felt magic in here." He looked at the half-changed were who had sat back down. "Why are you pointing a gun at him? Should I be pointing a gun at him?"

Anita stared at Larry then back at Xander who’d begun to snicker. She lowered her gun as his snickers turned into full belly laughs and he morphed back into his fully human form.

"I'm missing something here, aren't I?" Larry asked.

"I think we both are," Anita remarked dryly.

"Oh, that was funny. And, hey! Why were you pointing a gun at me? I didn't do anything other than shift." Xander demanded.

"Your a bunch of contradictions, kid. You claim you've only been a were for a week and yet you can change at will and speak like someone whose been one for a decade or more. It's called being cautious. Most of the newly bitten weres I know have really poor impulse control and when startled tend to attack whatever it was that startled them."

"Oh. Okay," he said with a smile. "You were just making sure your friend wasn't injured. I totally get that. I'd've done the same. Actually I have done the same. Anyway, I am, uh, newly bitten? It's just after years of controlling the Hyena, controlling my new inner kitty isn't so hard."

"Wait a minute. You're a pan-were? You can't contract a second form of lycanthropy after you've already had another. Only if you've been bitten by multiple weres at the same time."

"There are werehyenas?" Xander seemed to mull that over for a second. "That's kinda cool. But, no, I've never been a werehyena or a...a pan-were? No, I was possessed by a hyena spirit in high school. I killed and ate a pig raw, which was fairly nasty by the way, and tried to rape one of my best friends after seriously insulting the other one, and since I was Alpha of the pack I kinda, uh, had sex with all of the others too. You know, the whole show my authority by dominating them thing? Then after Giles did the spell to reverse the possession I was totally working the whole 'I don't remember anything' denial gig. Except I did remember and apparently not all of the Hyena left. Seems she liked me and she was determined to stay with her cub. So I had to learn how to control her 'cause her ideas on how to do some things are kinda frowned on by normal society. So controlling the inner kitty, no big deal. Although I guess I figured it being such a normal thing here that my amount of control was, well, normal."

"Well, it's not." She said sitting back down. "It's alright, Larry. Why don't you go back to your clients."

"Uh, okay," he said uncertainly but did as she suggested, closing the door behind him again.

She waited until he'd put his shirt back on, studying him warily. Finally she said, "Why are you really here?"

"Uh, cause I'm from another reality, accidentally ended up getting turned into a wereleopard, have nowhere to really go, Edward's decided he owes me some sort of life-debt 'cause I saved his life and won't accept it when I say he doesn't and he sent me to you as part of his idea of repaying it. All of which I've told you already." He paused and thought for a second. "Okay, I don't think I mentioned the life-debt part but that's more because Edward has this whole honor code thing going on, which is a good thing for most people, but his is kinda warped in a sociopathic stone cold killer kinda way. Actually kinda reminds me of Spike when he wasn't acting like a kid with ADD on crack."

"Who is Spike? Why can't you go to him or the other one you were talking about? The one named after a tree."

"Willow. Spike was a vampire. Now he's a vampire ghost who spends his days bugging the crap out of Deadboy for fun. But that's back in my reality. Tracking vampires, not so easy. Not even in this reality. As for why I can't go to Willow, well, Edward helped me look her, Buffy and Giles up, and while they exist in this reality and seem to be following more or less in the same footsteps as the ones in my reality I'm not too sure how they'd react to me being a were, though we didn't really have a problem with Oz, but Willow was dating Oz even before we found out he was a werewolf so it was cool, but that doesn't mean they'll be with the were-lovin' in this reality and well, it turns out that the me from this reality died about 3 months ago in a car accident, so I don't think they'd appreciate having me show up all with the from another reality can you send me back. I'd rather not open that wound for them."

"Stop!" Anita interrupted when he paused to take a breath. She stared at him sitting meekly in front of her. "I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today," she muttered. "Alright, let me see if I understand what you just said, and how the hell do you do that without breathing? No, don't answer that it was rhetorical." She paused, taking a calming breath. "Okay. In your 'reality' you know a vampire ghost who is currently haunting someone named Deadboy, and judging from that name I'm guessing he's either a vampire or a zombie?"

"Vampire," Xander supplied, snapping his mouth shut at her glare.

"Vampire being haunted by a vampire ghost. Right. As for why you can't go to your friends it's because you're not sure how they'll react to your being a wereleopard though one of them was dating a werewolf at some point. And supposedly you're dead in this reality and you don't want to cause them more grief. Yes or no, is that pretty much it?"

"Yeah, pretty much. You can call Edward if you don't believe me."

"That was more than yes or no, but I will call Edward. You sit there and be quiet." Picking up the phone she dialed the number for the little New Age store that Donna owned and 'Ted' would help out with if he was in town. "Hi, Donna, it's Anita."

"Hi Anita. How’s things in St. Louis?"

"The usual. Odd and unusual." She smiled at Donna's laugh. "How are the kids?"

"Good, good. They grow up so fast these days. I'm just grateful they adore Ted so much. Now I'm guessing you didn't call just to chat. Need to talk to Ted?"

"If it's not a problem. Thank you, Donna, and it is good talking to you."

"It's good talking to you too. Hold on a sec." A moment later Edward was on the phone.

"I've been expecting your call, Anita. Xander has told you his story?"

"So you believe him then?"

"Being as I saw him arrive, the events that followed, his first change, and helped him look up his friends... Yes, I believe him. He is an interesting young man with an amazing ability to speak without breathing for some time."

"I noticed the babbling," she said dryly, rolling her eyes at Xander's grin. "Why me?"

"Unless or until he contacts the versions of his friends in this reality he has no one and no place to go to. Your little group seemed the most qualified to take him in and help him." Edward paused, his voice low when he spoke again. "If I believed he was a threat to you or yours I would have dealt with him myself. I know how fiercely you protect your people."

Anita sighed. "I know. I guess it just sounded too far out there to be believed."

Edward laughed. "Considering the business you're in I would think you would keep an open mind about everything, Anita."

"Yeah, well, I like things having rules that they obey, and this doesn't obey any of the rules I know."

"It was good talking to you, Anita. I'll keep in touch."

She sighed as he hung up the phone on her. Anita looked at Xander who was watching her with a grin.

"Believe me now?"

"I'm not going to say yes, kid, but I am going to keep an open mind about it. Edward is usually an excellent judge when it comes to knowing just how dangerous something is."

Xander quirked his head to the side. "He didn't say I wasn't dangerous, just that I wasn't dangerous to you or yours. Which I'm not. I'm just looking for a place to crash until I can get a job that'll pay for a place of my own while I figure out whether or not I'll ever be able to go home."

"Alright, kid, we'll see what we can do for you. I'm Nimir-Ra of the Blooddrinker's Pard, which is the local wereleopard pard."

"Pard. Is that like a pack? What's a Nimir-Ra?"

"Yes, it's the leopard equivalent of a pack. The Nimir-Ra and Nimir-Raj are the leaders of the pard. Nimir-Ra is female, and the Nimir-Raj is male." She paused shifting in her chair a little. "I'm going to be meeting up with my Nimir-Raj, Micah, and some of the betas to see a movie. Since you'll need to meet Micah anyway you can come with us. If he agrees then I'll allow you to stay at the house until you get a job and can get a place of your own. I better not regret this.”

“I’ll be good as gold,” Xander promised.


End file.
